[A ray of hope: a candidate who trusted the intelligence of voters wins a decisive victory: "... it should cause political candidates and commentators to rethink what can he said and done on a political stage that is too frequently characterized by bluster and bombast." *RON*]

Megan Barry mounted a smart and nuanced progressive campaign for mayor of Nashville—so smart, and so nuanced, in fact, that it should cause political candidates and commentators to rethink what can he said and done on a political stage that is too frequently characterized by bluster and bombast.

Even if Barry had not won Thursday’s runoff election for the Tennessee city’s top job, her campaign would have been instructive. Because she did win, with a decisive 55-45 margin over a free-spending hedge-fund manager who suggested she was too liberal to lead a Mid-South city, Barry’s victory…

Scientists today laid out a truly worst-case scenario for global warming — what would happen if we burned the Earth's entire supply of fossil fuels.

Virtually all of Antarctica's ice would melt, leading to a 160- to 200-foot sea level rise.

"If we burn it all, we're going to melt it all," says Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science.

The huge Antarctic ice sheet stores more than half of the planet's fresh water, and Caldeira had long wanted to know how much of that ice would melt if people just kept burning fossil fuels until they're gone.

[California may now become the fifth state to allow assisted suicide. The effort to legalize assisted suicide is widespread in the US. "More than half the states, plus Washington, D.C., have put forward bills this year to legalize some kind of assisted suicide.... So far, none of them have become law. *RON*]

By Ian Lovett, New York Times, 11 September 2015

SACRAMENTO — In a landmark victory for supporters of assisted suicide, the California State Legislature on Friday gave its final approval to a bill that would allow doctors to help terminally ill people end their lives.

Four states — Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont — already allow physicians to prescribe life-ending medication to some patients. The California bill, which passed Friday in the State Senate by a vote of 23 to 14, will now go to Gov. Jerry Brown, who will roughly triple access to doctor-assisted suicide across the country if he signs it. Mr. Brown has given little ind…

[This is the nation in which more people believe in angels than believe in evolution. Online survey shows 29% would support a military coup against their own government while 41% said they could not imagine supporting such an event. *RON*]Ellen Brait, The Guardian, 12 September 2015
Almost a third of Americans could imagine supporting a military coup against their own government, according to a new poll.

The YouGov survey showed 29% of Americans could imagine supporting a coup. Yet, 41% said they could not imagine supporting such an event.

Click here to view the original article.[The reason that Harper opposes any form of proportional representation is clear. An NDP/Liberal coalition could change this, but they are rabidly fearful of partnering with one another. *RON*]
By Bryan Breguet, Huffington Post, 12 September 2015

What if we had a different electoral system?

The current polls can’t agree on who is first, or second, or third, and the most recent projections show an even closer three-way race than before. This is, however, a result of our electoral system – a system that can occasionally produce unexpected results where a party can win more seats with fewer votes for instance.

VANCOUVER — Canada is the only country in the world to charge interest to refugees on travel loans, saddling struggling newcomers with debt as they try to rebuild their lives, advocates say.

The federal government requires privately sponsored and government-assisted refugees to pay for their own travel costs and overseas medical exams and will loan families up to $10,000.

"Refugees are desperate and eager to repay the loan, as a small gesture of tremendous gratitude and appreciation to the government," said Chris Friesen of the Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia. "But at what cost?"

Friesen said families are using more of their food money to pay down the debt.

He said some countries, including the United States and Australia, require refugees to pay back loans for travel costs but d…